A Pivotal Prayer :14-21 Intro – How do we go from knowing truth to being transformed by truth? How do we take a concept like “God loves me” and go from being able to affirm that it is true to actually comprehending it deep down to the point that we respond differently to the circumstances and people in our lives because it is true? The end of Ephesians 3 stands at such a pivot point. After two and a half chapters of doctrine, Paul is about to jump into 3 chapters of application. 3 chapters of imperatives based on the indicatives. At this pivot point, he prays. His prayer reflects awe about the majesty of the gospel. God set His love on people from eternity past, rescued them from sin and darkness, adopted them as His own children, and placed them in the church to display His wisdom for all to see. But his prayer also reflects our deep need for God to work in our hearts to take truth and apply it to life. If you have ever felt powerless to live out what you see in the , this prayer is for you. If you ever struggle to really believe that God loves you, this prayer is for you. 1. The preface to the prayer (3:14-15) a. “For this reason” i. picks up where v. 1 began before pausing to explain his ministry to gentiles and the manifold wisdom of God in composing the church of Jews and Gentiles ii. Returns to this prayer leading out of chapters 1-3 1. God set His love on you and adopted you as His child (ch. 1) 2. Even though you were dead in sin He made you alive in (2:1-10) 3. Jews and Gentiles are one new man brought near by the blood of Christ (2:11-3:13) 4. 3:10 God’s manifold wisdom is known through the church to the angelic beings 5. Ephesians 3:12 in whom [] we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. b. “I bow my knees before the Father” i. Just as Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven” – so Paul describes his prayer as to the Father ii. Every notion of fatherhood that is good and genuine on earth has its ultimate archetype in God Himself. iii. We don’t refer to God as Father because He reminds us of earthly Fathers. Rather, God created earthly families as a picture of Him. iv. Men, want to know how to father? Look to the archetype – look to God’s fatherhood. He provides, He serves, He pursues the wayward, He is gentle but just. v. Didn’t have a dad like that? God can fill that hole, that ache that an absent father created. He makes two requests for his readers, essentially letting them listen in as he prays to God for them. 2. May God strengthen your inner man. (3:16-17a) What does this strength mean? Best way to explain it is to look at the end goal and work backwards. “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” a. The purpose of the strength: That Christ would be at home in your heart (v. 17a) i. In the inner man ii. Christ dwells in the heart of every believer 1. :9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. iii. The picture and purpose here though is not merely of being in the heart but being at home in your heart, settled down in a place that is fitting for Him. iv. Famous booklet, My Heart Christ’s Home, pictures the Christian life as a house through which Jesus goes from room to room. The library pictures the mind. As the Christian shows Jesus the library he is ashamed and uncomfortable as he realizes the books and magazines, which represents the Christians thoughts, values, and preoccupations, didn’t delight his guest. Gradually, Jesus helped him remove those things and replace them with God’s Word. In the dining room Jesus finds that the man has been feeding his appetites with money and popularity and worldly desires, and Jesus replaces them with humility, meekness, and love. He goes through the workshop where the man is barely toiling for insignificant things and redirects his efforts to significant service for others, He cleans out the closet of hidden sins. In the end, the home is comfortable and suitable for Jesus. v. Galatians 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you vi. Col. 3 uses the language of clothing - ridding ourselves of things that no longer fit us as children of God and clothing ourselves with those things that are fitting. In this prayer in Ephesians 3, it’s more using the language of dwelling. vii. Making a heart a fitting home for Christ is something that we are responsible to do but it’s hard and, frankly, impossible. What do we need? Strength. Don’t give up. Pray . . . and act. 1. Nehemiah – rebuilding the wall amidst hostile enemies – prayed, and picked up a brick. Prayed, and picked up a sword. b. The measure of the strength: The riches of the Father (v. 16b) i. Describes the resources at his disposal to bring this power that effects change ii. Would you rather an extremely wealthy billionaire give you from his riches or according to his riches? He could give you $10 from his riches but that would not be according to his riches. c. The means of the strength: The power of the (v. 16c) i. God’s Spirit is the means by which He strengthens us ii. Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. iii. Don’t miss the Trinitarian nature of this – Father strengthening you by the Spirit to make you a fit dwelling for the Son. d. We need strength in the inner man as the outer man breaks down. i. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ii. My outer man is breaking down! 1. Vision – used to take pride in my 20/20 (not like I had anything to do with it) but last week I was afraid I would pass the vision exam to renew my driver’s license! iii. We can become bitter as we decay so that our inside mirrors our outside. Or we can be renewed day by day in the inner man, strengthened in the inner man, so that the transforming work of Christ is more and more evident in our lives. e. But don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just a back door to make all about rules. God’s motivation is love, which is where the prayer goes next. 3. May God open your eyes to His immeasurable love for you. (3:17b-19) a. Knowing God’s love provides a secure foundation in an insecure world. (v. 17b) i. Rooted and grounded – agricultural and architectural (founded) but both have the same ideas – a tall tree and a tall building both have the same problem. They will tip over if not adequately secured. Trees send down roots, construction workers dig deep foundations. ii. Just like a child who knows she is deeply loved at home can better withstand childhood challenges of broken friendships or a disorienting move to a new city, even her own parent’s discipline, so we can better withstand the challenges of life and the difficulty of personal change if we are convinced that we are deeply loved by God. b. God’s love is wider and deeper than we imagine. (v. 18) i. Wide enough to embrace the world (John 3:16) ii. Long enough to last forever 1. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 2. Charles Spurgeon –“It is so long that your old age cannot wear it out, so long your continual tribulation cannot exhaust it, your successive temptations shall not drain it dry; like eternity itself it knows no bounds.” iii. High enough to take sinners to heaven and deep enough to reach down into our lowest points of life to grab us. iv. Psalm 103:11-12 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. v. AW Tozer – “Because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning, because He is eternal, His love can have no end, because He is infinite it has no limit, because He is holy it is the quintessence of all spotless purity, because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea. . .“ vi. Metaphor – linear measurement as if you could measure love – breadth, length, height, depth – like a child who tells their mom, “I love you thissss much” as they hold out their arms. Do you quantify love that way? Would a good mom explain that to her daughter? “Honey, love cannot be measured by the arm span of a 4 year old.” No! She would get that the child is saying she has great love for her. vii. Notice this is “with all the saints” – fits the context of the book – You are saved and placed into the church – into the body of believers – and we grow in appreciated God’s love in that context, not apart from it. c. God’s love surpasses knowledge. (v. 19a) i. Moves from a metaphor to a paradox – how can we know the unknowable? How can we know that which surpasses knowledge? ii. Beyond intellectual knowledge, praying that they (we) would appreciate God’s love, experience God’s love. iii. Carson illustration – very ill as a 10 year old and spent several weeks in the hospital. The immediate threat to his life ended and he went home to recover over a period of months. One afternoon he awoke to find his mom crying quietly at the side of his bed. He blurted out, “Why mom, you do love me!” To which she burst all the more into tears and ran from the room! He comments that if you had asked him the day before whether his mom loved him, of course he would have said yes. But something about that moment of pain and sorrow and his mother’s tears gave him cause to reflect on her love for him. iv. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. v. How many more ways can God communicate this to us?! 1. He tells Moses that He is “abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Ex. 34:6) 2. He gives us the story of the parable of the prodigal son where He is the Father who runs to embrace His lost son. (Luke 15) 3. John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. d. A deepened appreciation of God’s love leads to real maturity. (v. 19b) i. :13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. ii. “filled up” means to be utterly characterized by that thing 1. someone filled with rage is dominated by hatred and anger 2. filled with happiness is to be dominated by joy 3. filled with all the fullness of God is to be dominated and utterly characterized by God’s work in our hearts. iii. This spills over into chapter 4 1. Ephesians 4:1-3 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 2. As we grow in appreciation of God’s love for us it spills out into love for others. 3. Illustration – cup full of water, I shake the cup, what comes out? Water? Why did water come out? Because it was full of water! 4. May God receive the glory in the church and in Christ. (3:20-21) a. “to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” i. The words are practically tripping over themselves with repetition to emphasize God immense power – like a child who is “really, really, really, really, really , really hungry!” “ok, honey, I got it after the third or fourth “really”’ b. To Him be the glory i. The ultimate goal of this request for power and comprehension of the love of God is God’s glory in the church and Christ forever. ii. That is the ultimate goal – the immediate goal of the prayer is strength and comprehension of God’s love. But it doesn’t end with us. It never does. iii. Midpoint of the book but a great culminating statement – God’s glory is displayed in the church through taking messed up, rebellious, broken people, adopting them through Christ as His children, joining them in the church that displays His manifold wisdom. 5. What should we take away from this prayer? a. When you simultaneously feel convicted and powerless to change, pray for strength. i. God, make my heart a suitable home for Christ. ii. And go to work trusting that he will supply the needed strength. b. God loves you, but are you really living as though that is true? i. The prayer assumes that it is true but most believers need to grow to appreciate it further. c. Don’t know what to pray for others? Model your prayers after this.